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Trader
In its simplest form, trading is simply buying goods on the Commodities Market in one location and selling them at a higher price in another for profit. Trading links to a dynamic background economy simulation based on player activity, which results in changes in prices and volumes of goods in different systems over time, and even the colonization of new systems. Traders are well-advised to keep some cash in reserve! If by any chance the player loses their ship - whether to pirates or simply a docking accident - the cargo is not insured. For this reason prudent traders will never spend more than 50% or 60% of their credits on any one cargo. No matter how tempting it can be to stuff the cargo hold with every last bit of Gold or Progenitor Cells, it is generally not worth the risk of losing all of your working capital at once. Traders in less-safe systems rely on armour, shields and weapons to dissuade pirates from attacking them, or to buy enough time to make an escape. If you have a lot of extra space, you can carry a small amount of cheap items to jettison if you are attacked and need to buy some time to get away. Jettisoning inexpensive cargo can buy you time for a jump to hyperspace. Bulletin Boards will often offer a special reward for some specific items so when you arrive with cargo, you should check the bulletin board first to see if you can make a higher profit that way. The galaxy map offers tools to track existing trade routes where high supply from one system is sent by NPC's to a high demand in another system. It is also possible to discover your own trade routes outside of this. By heavy trading, you can "bleed a system dry" so that they go from high supply to low or no supply, or contrariwise lower demand from high to low. Thus, you can never be entirely sure that a trade route will stay as a stable income. Some NPC traders may setup shop in a system and broadcast their location outside of stations. This allows for players to do even shorter hops to and from station systems if commodities are available. One example are the Seeking Luxuries traders searching for Luxury Items however profits from using these show up as black market transactions. Ranks -Note- These numbers may be incorrect as they cannot be confirmed through the game -Note- The player gains trade ranks based upon the amount of money made by selling commodities or by smuggling. External Tools Notice: 3rd party programs are not supported by Frontier or this wiki. The following tools can be useful when trading * eddb - Elite: Dangerous Database ** Web-based trade-route finder and system/station directory * Elite trading tool ** Web-based, with reputation system for users. * Slopey's BPC Market Tool ** Security Note: Closed source program, which demands admin privileges to run! * TradeDangerous ** Requires Python 3 * Eventure's Trade Computer Extention ** Requires Microsoft Excel *** Must be used with ED in window or borderless mode ** TCE is a free, open source UI overlay that allows you to build and access your own private database of just about anything you can encounter in a way that feels as native as possible to ED Gallery File:Import_Mission.png|Import Mission